Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Reviews — Page 5

Another rave from NJ. This time from The Star Ledger (NJ.com). Michael Sommers quotes: "Give these gents a Tony Award and be done with it".

Margo, just to correct you, it's The Bergen Record, not the Register. Or as they now wish to be called, simply The Record, since the also cover Passaic County and portions of Morris.

Sara Ramirez is anything but awful...she's great.

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Thanks Margo & others. I'll be in town on business on the 30th and have tix for the matinee. Looking forward to it.

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What are some of these reviewers thinking?????????????????????

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The true test is...

Is it selling tickets?

It got more good reviews than not, and in the long run, I don't think the Times or Daily News reviews will hurt it. I liked the show a lot, and the audience I saw it with seemed to eat it up.

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I'm finding the reviews on this show interesting. I agree, mostly, so perhaps that's why I'm not up and arms. I think this thread was an interesting read, because many of the critics provided examples for why they thought what they thought, but because they weren't necessarily positive thoughts, they're getting second-guessed. In my opinion, the show, while good and entertaining, does match up to the comments it is getting for the most part. I'd certainly recommend it, but the weaknesses are being pointed out. As are the strengths. Which is one of the points of reviews in the first place. And through my more neutral reading of the reviews, I find a lot more of them mixed than positive. But that's just my intepretation.

Roma Torre of NY1 gave it a rave review.
http://www.ny1.com/Living/theater_reviews.html

Peter Felicia weighs in. He had a great time and enjoyed himself. He thinks the score is serviceable. Everybody's just fine in it.

But his main enthusiasms --- and two reasons he enjoyed himself so much -- are Butz and Gettelfinger.


Love Letter to Norbert & Sarah

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Interesting, Matt...Feingold is likewise mixed (maybe leaning towards the negative).

But even as he notes the things that annoy him (he thinks the musical is an uneasy meld of 'old school' musical comedy structure and loud, MTV-musical style, describing it as "about half...is a very pleasant and not unwitty old-style musical that seems to have been blown up way out of proportion, while the other half is a crass, laborious earache.") he can point out where he thinks it goes wrong without bashing it, gives praise to the cast ("Both Lithgow and Butz are charming in their very different ways, as are Gregory Jbara and Joanna Gleason in secondary roles") and quite extravagantly raves over Yazbeck's lyrics (but not his music):

"And although David Yazbek's music is thin on melody, his lyrics are often truly wonderful, flamboyantly funny in a freewheeling way that's a big step forward from his work on The Full Monty. They're also contemporary in a more meaningful way than the show's heavy-breathing efforts to get down: Using old-style wit and versification while stepping over taste boundaries, they give the show a 2005 equivalent of the brashness that made '20s and '30s musicals feel so alive in their own time."

On second read, I think its more of an OK review than not.

Two-Faced Tuner

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